Mount Mansfield, Vermont, from My Hotel Bedroom (Dec. 2017)

Saturday, December 5, 2015

I'm thoroughly enjoying Ken Follett's epic Fall of Giants, the first in his twentieth-century trilogy. The hardest part since Thanksgiving has been finding an hour each day to read. I am doing it at least five days a week, but it's been tricky to manage. I've found that I love relaxing with a book in the late afternoon, from about four to five pm. And that relaxation is key to my well-being, (or so I tell myself). Of course, I walk at least an hour each day, so there goes two hours for the well-being quotient. Still waiting for snow!! So late this year.

And most readers of this blog know of my predilection for books of Christmas Froth. I've read one--The Mistletoe Inn by Richard Paul Evans. It was published this fall, and though I found it restful before falling asleep, it was really very mediocre. Oh dear, yes, I was disappointed. Dull characters--in a romance? ugh.
I have much higher hopes for another because it received two separate starred reviews. It's What Happens at Christmas by Victoria Alexander. I'll be starting it tonight.

For my Classics Club read this month, I'll be reading a volume from Washington Irving's Sketchbook, "One Christmas," published in the early 1800s. More about this title later.

About Me

I live in a beautiful mountainous wilderness region of northern New York. This environment perfectly suits all my outdoor interests: bushwhacking, hiking, alpine and cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and the study of nature.
Since moving to the Adirondacks in 2005 from the Boston area, I still find plenty of time for reading, but far less time for writing and painting, though I still enjoy these activities.
Although I am a former educator, I am now a professional genealogist, specializing in New York and New England ancestries, from the 1600s through the twentieth century.